Discovery of ancient Aboriginal track a path to shared history and reconciliation

Inspired by the stories he heard from the Aboriginal elders of south east NSW, John Blay searched for and found a 360 kilometre ancient Aboriginal pathway from Mt Kosciuszko to the coast. In his newly released book, On Track, he tells the story of his epic walks from the highest point of Australia to Twofold Bay near Eden.

In the 1970s John Blay met people from the Aboriginal community of Wallaga Lake, near Bermagui on the NSW Far south coast.

Their stories inspired him to learn more about the surrounding country, often mountainous difficult bush covering enormous areas of national parks and state forests.

"I got to know all the plants that grew there and I started to find these artefacts and I started to find easy ways to go through [the bush]."

From the older Aboriginal people at Wallaga Lake he learned that these easy ways were old Aboriginal pathways.

In 2001 he received a history research grant to research the south east forests, especially the old Aboriginal pathways.

He met B.J. Cruse, Chairman of the Eden Aboriginal Land Council, 'and we got on like a house on fire'.

"I told him I was going to walk from Kosciuszko down to the coast, see if I could find any bits of old pathway that were there.

Mr Cruse said that there were stories about pathways linking the Monaro with the coast.

"He really encouraged me," said Mr Blay.

The Aboriginal people of south east New South Wales are known as Monaroo Bobberrer Gudu: people of the mountains and sea.

They moved between the coast and the Snowy Mountains feasting on bogon moths that gathered in mountain caves over summer, and travelling to the coast to feast on fish, lobster, abalone, and beached whales.

John Blay wanted to find the route of their pathway, and he had some evidence to begin with.

A government surveyor, Mr Thomas Townsend, had surveyed some of the tracks in 1842.

"It was surveyed as though it was a road," said Mr Blay.

In the same year the newly arrived settler Ben Boyd needed to find a way up to the Monaro from Twofold Bay.

As Townsend had also done, he asked the Aboriginal people to show him the way.

Together with a companion, Oswald Brierly, they were guided by Budginbro, a young Aboriginal man.

From Townsend's, Brierly's and other records Mr Blay knew where to look for some sections of the track on the Monaro and sections from the coast into the Great Dividing Range, but he would need to find the paths that connected the various sections.

The greatest mystery was the path down the escarpment from the Monaro to the coast.

However he found a significant clue that he needed to follow.

"There was an amazing man went through in the 1850s called W.B. Clarke, who was a minister of religion, and he had a very good affinity with Aboriginal people.

"And he recorded what he found to be some of the major passes of the region and he had described the southern one as being the Bundian Pass."

This was regarded as the easiest way from the Monaro Tablelands to the coast but its location had been lost.

From 2003 Mr Blay did a series of walks from Mt Kosciuszko to the Snowy River and then through wilderness to Delegate and then towards the coast at Twofold Bay, but could not find the Bundian Pass.

"I'd really exhausted myself looking for the Bundian Pass, and I knew I was so close to it."

At that point he visited Harold Farrell, a bushman and dingo trapper now living in Bombala but who lived much of his life in the mountain forests, and asked him if he had heard of the Bundian Pass.

"Of course I have. I know it well, I used to use it," he answered. "It's the easiest way off the Monaro down to Nungatta and my old place."

Mr Blay was 'gobsmacked' at how easily the mystery had finally been solved and the final link was in place.

In 2010 the Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council was funded to survey the Bundian Way.

A survey team of up to five Aboriginal people walked the entire length of the Bundian Way.

The Bundian Way has since been listed as of state heritage significance.

It has become a major project for the Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council that has been clearing the walking track with a view to opening what John Blay describes as one of the world's great walking tracks.

The first stage of the project is a deviation of the track that runs around the stunning shore of Twofold Bay from Bilgalara (Fisheries Beach) to the Monaroo Bobberrer Gudu Cultural Centre at Jigamy Farm north of Eden.

On Track: searching out the Bundian Way will be launched at the Monaroo Bobberrer Gudu Cultural Centre at Jigamy Farm at 4pm on Saturday August 1.

John Blay will be in conversation with award winning historian Mark McKenna at Candelo Books in Bega at 5pm on August 6.

And the book will be launched at the Delegate School of Arts at 1pm on Saturday August 15.

John Blay on the Bundian Way leaving Bilgalara (Fisheries Beach on the southern shore of Twofold Bay, opposite Eden). The ancient Aboriginal track spans 360 kilometres across many landscapes from the coast up forested mountains to the Monaro plains and to Mt Kosciuszko, Australia's highest point in the Snowy Mountains.
(Bill Brown - ABC South East NSW)